KI WindSeeker to Open Tomorrow

According to WLWT in Cincinnati WindSeeker at Kings Island will open tomorrow morning at 9:30 am for gold/platinum pass members. The park will open at 10 to general public and anyone can ride at that point, that follow the height restrictions.

Cedar Point opened their WindSeeker on June 15th!

WildCat accident at Cedar Point

Sunday afternoon, the popular attraction WildCat was placed under investigation after an "incident" that injured 7.

On Sunday June 5th, one of WildCat's cars that seat four people crashed into a stopped car in the loading station around 5 p.m. 7 people were left with bumps and bruises but no serious injuries were suffered.

Cedar Point sent the seven people involved to the first-aid station for treatment. Four of those left the first aid station without further treatment, while Cedar Point took the three others to a local medical center for precautions. None of the three were admitted.

WildCat has had an indecent before, when a car was traveling up a hill and didn't make it all the way. The car then rolled backwards and hit the car behind it. Nine total were injured in May 2008.

Dinosaurs Alive Dino Catches Fire

 EDIT 5:41 pm 5/25/11

According to WLWT of Cincinnati the Dinosaur that caught fire yesterday just after the park closed was the main attraction of Dinosaurs Alive Dinosaur Park called the Ruyang Yellow River Dinosaur. As Don Helbig stated, the remains have been removed. Helbig has also said the Dinosaur will be replaced as soon as possible but isn't stating when that would be.

Check back here at the G-Force Blog for updates on this news story!

 EDIT 11:36 pm 5/24/11

According to The Oxford Press Dinosaurs Alive will be open at 2 pm on May 26, 2011 as scheduled. Information was provided to Oxford Press from Don Helbig, park PR manager. The cause is still undetermined. However, Helbig said that the Dinosaur that caught fire was in the process of being constructed by a team of KI officials and contractors.

 Read more: http://www.wlwt.com/entertainment/28013533/detail.html#ixzz1NP2khekp

 Original Post:

According to Fox19 the new Animatronic Dinosaur Park at Kings Island called Dinosaurs Alive has caught fire and been quickly extinguished. At press time it was not known what exactly had caught fire. None of the park guests had to be evacuated. 

 The original story can be read here: Kings Island Fire via Fox 19 in Dayton.

The following pictures are from the news story. Check back for updates.

Source: Tonia Ellen

 

Source: Andrew Rechenberg

 

Source: FOX19 NewsNation

Last Kings Island Trip Report for 2011

Well yesterday was my last visit to the park for 2011 unless some miracle happens and I get to come back to Ohio for a Haunt night.

The day started wonderfully! Got to the park just about quarter after 9. We noticed the LED scrolling signs said the park was open until 10pm. We were in the park for ERT. My friends and I headed to Diamondback. What a wonderful and smooth ride that was! We headed over to Beast to get a morning ride on it. I was impressed on the smoothness again! Of course I didn't ride in a wheel seat! At this point we ended up meeting with even more people! We headed over to Firehawk as soon as the park opened to the General Public. It was a walk on! Operations seemed really smooth, quick dispatch and all! Since we were in the area we decided to ride Flight of Fear since we were there and it was a near walk on. It must have been the earliness in the season but the coaster was really smooth! During the mid-course break being in the goofy mood I was I decided to yell I don't like roller coasters and had the girl behind me say she didn't either! Oops!

After we rode that Dave's wife and I went to buy tickets for Sky Flyer. Tickets were $5, hard to believe parks that have these attractions don't charge $5 too and get more ridership on them! We then went to Racer to meet up with the group again. Blue side was the only operational side at this point, however it went down for a protein spill. We got a great ride and view of WindSeeker/DA entrance area! We all decided to go ride Adventure Express (which was a walk on), Delirium (short wait), Drop Tower (short wait) then Flight Deck (walk on in the back row!) At this point it was just about noon...can you believe we did all of this before noon?!? Our group respectively split into different areas to eat lunch. We all got back together at the park entrance at quarter after one.

Dave's wife, myself and Dustin went to ride Sky Flyer. Others followed suit! It was a great ride and well worth the $5! At this point, tickets were still $5! There were more people buying tickets at this time. I doubt they had any downtime at that all day! Our group ended up going to Flight Deck one more time before a small portion of the group left for a Bridal show. While waiting for dispatch I asked the ride op what time the park closed and he said 8. I forgot how intense Flight Deck actually is in the front! It was such a great ride! I enjoy the paint job on it! We decided it was a bit of time when we should relax. So we headed to the Festhaus to see American Country. They were doing rehearsals on Way Too Much TV before the show started. I still stand by my decision that American Country is one of the best shows I have seen at the park! A couple of my friends came in and say our hellos and goodbyes before they headed home. I had realized that my draw string Diamondback back had been tearing so I decided to go into the Emporium to get a new bag. As I went up to purchase the bag I asked if there were any platinum pass or season pass discounts. The associate told me no, they don't have them at this store. So I said okay and paid the full price, it wasn't too big a deal to pay full price. Our group then headed over to Boo Blaster's on Boo Hill because we heard a storm was coming in.

The inside queue was totally packed but moving quickly. As RaptorGuy mentioned on another topic, there were some minor adjustments to the ride like ghosts added to the queue area and better painting on some things. Some targets were working and the fog screen wasn't working. I was a bit disappointed but what can you do! We all decided to ride Diamondback again. I ended up doing Single Rider a couple of times. We noticed some storm clouds were coming in and it was starting to sprinkle. We set out for Crypt but ended up deciding to ride the train. The train was an experience in a half! We got on the green train, my favorite. As we were riding it started to rain. We got to Boomerang Bay and it was not raining too hard. After a long wait there, we loaded up and got about 100 feet from that station and stopped. The ride op came over the speaker and said that we were going to be going backwards and to please remain seated. So yes, I got a roll back on the train!! We sat for a few minutes after stopping going backwards. Then headed forward again, then a loud crack of thunder and a down pour! We pulled into the main station and stayed on the train while many got out. It was lightning, thundering, pouring rain and hailing! After it started to lighten up and eventually stopped raining we headed to Beast. 

Down Pour

Well, Beast was still down and we ended up going up to the station for a dry place just in case it started to rain again. We made that smart decision to wait up there. There were about maybe 20 some people in the station. After about an hour and some odd minutes of down pour and storms, the sun came out! The ride ops got a call that they had to cycle the trains and have a track walk before they could open it. Seemed like one minute later they got another phone call saying all they needed to do was continue to cycle and have a test ride. So we were on in no time! I got to ride the front of the train with maybe 12 other people on the train, because a lot of people left the station during the storm. I tell you what, that was the best ride on Beast that wasn’t at night! The train was flying through due to weight and the recent rain! Even though I was on a wheel seat, it was very smooth!

After we finished that ride we headed over to Diamondback. There was NO WAIT really. At most the wait would have been a station wait. I got several rides on it and it was running really smooth too! It was great to see so many of my friends that worked on Diamondback! After the park closed at 8, I said my final goodbyes to those at Diamondback. I headed up to the front gate area with a couple of friends. I wanted to get a couple of shirts from Emporium. I ended up picking up the “You must be this tall to ride this ride” shirt and a green old Kings Island logo shirt! As I went to the register I asked that attendant if there were any pass discounts. I was told no there wasn’t any. Now this is where my only rant and upset moment comes with the park on this trip.

Before entering the park I was asked to do a survey and Dave asked the employee about pass discounts. They said there were several discounts in the park including food and merchandise. We asked where because there wasn’t any information on the website about these discounts on merchandise except that there were discounts. So there was one employee telling me that I could get a discount on merchandise. But, when I went to Emporium I was told I couldn’t get a discount when I asked, twice.

So I looked on Kings Island’s website at the discounts for a platinum pass. The website on both Gold Pass and Platinum Pass (which I have) discounts says, “Merchandise Discount

Show your Gold or Platinum Pass at select merchandise locations and receive discounts throughout the 2011 season.” When I looked for a list of these locations...but there is no menu or anything that you can click to my knowledge that shows you the locations. When you search for platinum pass merchandise discount locations search, nothing is retrieved. Grant it, I bought 3 items that were fairly cheap for the park, it would have been nice to be able to use my pass for what I bought it for, such as discounts, free parking, ERT, admission to the park, etc. Not to mention platinum passes aren't a cheap up-front cost.

However, I said goodbye to my best friend in the park and headed to Wendy's with the rest of the group. The day was amazing and I had a lot of fun for my last trip. It was a very bitter-sweet visit but totally worth it! I'm hoping for great things with this park in the future and it will continue to be my home park even though I'm states away!

Thanks to everyone who came to visit yesterday with me and for all of your support!

 Don't forget you can leave comments!

-Chris

Kings Island News

Just a quick list of news about Kings Island:

• There are now 4 operational webcams at the park that you can check out at any time at Kings Island Web Cams
• Sponge Bob 3D will no longer be playing in Action FX Theater!!! It will be replaced by Dinosaurs Alive 3D per Kings Island Twitter Account
• In a separate conversation with KI's PR manager, Dinosaurs Alive 3D will be charged and there will be a $7 combo ticket to the Dinosaur park and movie.
• Kings Island will begin Daily Operation on May 13th per Kings Island Twitter Account
• There was a flash mob of expecting mothers on opening day to the song "Baby" by watching it here 10 cents will be donated to the March of Dimes Flash Mob at Kings Island Video
• Fans of KI Entertainment has stated there are 4 new shows at Kings Island this year, American Country, Hot Summer Nights, Peanuts Party in the Plaza and Peanuts Pirate Adventure!!!
• Dinosaur's Alive is coming along great! It's slated to open on May 26th! KI Dinosaur's Alive
• Kings Island's WindSeeker as well as Cedar Point's, and Canada's Wonderland's have been delayed on opening. All three have/will not be open for the parks opening weekend. Theme Park Tourist News Story on WindSeeker
• Coney Mall has been completely overhauled and looks great!

All media above was provided via Kings Island Twitter Account

Don't forget to leave some comments! Would like to hear what you have to say about the news posted above!

An Opening Day Review

Sorry this has taken so long. I just graduated college this past Saturday so the time before hand was a bit stressful!

Anyway on to the review!

I had the pleasure of visiting Kings Island on opening day. While the day was quite special, it was a great day overall.

I got to the park right around 9:00am. Went to the admission gates and my platinum pass wouldn't work. Stood in line for 20 minutes for Guest Relations to tell me that my pass wouldn't work probably at all this season that I'd have to stop in to GR every time I visited. My pass is from Carowinds, didn't have any problem going from Carowinds to Kings Dominion. However, I was told that Carowinds passes had an issue with the Kings Island system. Headache right there!

Anyway, went to Diamondback once I got into the park. Both queue houses were already full, this was just for ERT! As soon as we rode a perfect ride of Diamondback we went to Beast, however it was down. So we decided to ride the "new experience" on Crypt. The queue area was sweet! However the ride itself was pretty much the same. We met up with some great friends there and headed to Coney Mall to check it out. Vortex, Action Theater and WindSeeker were not operational. So we went to ride Flight of Fear. The queue for that was almost under the Racer. So we decided to ride Racer. The line for that was spilled out to right in front of Outer Hanks. We decided to stick it out since the queue house wasn't open. Once we got to the queue house, we opened the queue rails. We were next in line when we saw a train get dispatched with an empty seat that had it's restraint open. That's a big no-no even if there isn't a guest in the seat. The crew caught the mistake, stopped the train at the bottom of the lift hill and corrected the problem. The sent the train off and the next one (ours) came into the station. 15-16 of us, (Kings Island Central members) were on the train. We got dispatched and as we got 2/3 of the way up the hill we had a slight jolt that turned into a quick stop but then went again. We moved an inch or so more and we stopped. We sat on the hill for about 20 minutes with crew and area supervisors coming to check on us. Since most of us have worked at the park or been to the park enough we knew we'd be evacuated. The area supervisors came to us to let us know we'd be evacuated and helped us on our way.

I decided to break off from the group to find lunch. Which interestingly enough, met up with the group in the Festhaus to watch American Country. This by far was an amazing show! Afterwards my friend and I decided to go ride some rides. We headed to Action Zone to get some rides over there..but to our amazement the whole section was pretty much down except for three rides that had a 2+ hr wait. We went to ride Vortex (it finally opened about 2:30), then Racer (successfully ridden), the Train and Diamondback. He then left and I met up with some other friends.We did a mass take over on Diamondback. It was a great ride as well! Then we ended up going to Beast. Well Beast was easily a 1.5 hr wait. It was worth it because it turned into a night ride! What was really cool was seeing WindSeeker lit up! (Pictures and video at the bottom) Afterwards we checked out WindSeeker, walked through Snoopy's Starlight Spectacular and then to Diamondback for the last train of the night.

Although many rides were down and I got evacuated off of the Racer I had a great day. I evened out my number of rides since it opened to 355! Can't wait for my next trip!

Courtesy of Jordan Hill---group on Racer stuck!

All of the pictures are mine except the one that is captioned.

Would love to hear your response! Leave a comment! 

WindSeeker Update

By Chris:




Sorry again for the delay in blogs friends. I'm wrapping up my senior year of college so you can imagine it's a busy time of the year for me.

You know who else is busy? Kings Island. Kings Island recently released via their social media including www.visitkingsisland.com (after a bit of teasing) that we will be getting a walk through Dinosaur Adventure to open up on May 26th for an upcharge of $5. Work has started already for that! KI has also tweeted that the Crypt is getting some ride enhancments as well during the offseason.


So here's what you want to know about WindSeeker as of today. This is what park PR Manager, Don Helbig has told me.


Vertical Construction has been completed on the tower. The ride aparatus will take a week to ten days to be completely built (already underway). The LED lighting package for WindSeeker will be similar to Snoopy's Starlight Spectacular. Coney Mall will be completely done mid-April. With WindSeeker taking center stage near Action Theater, guests will enter Action Theater to the right of WindSeeker near the exit of the ride. The queue line for WindSeeker will be to the left of the ride. I had asked Don if the former Flight Commanders ride pad was considered for WindSeeker. Don stated,  "We wanted the attraction in Coney Mall and the spot where it is was determined to be the best spot for a variety of reasons. Balances the skyline of the park from that location."


Other questions were submitted from other fans through me to Don. As for plans to repaint the Racer the original scheme Don said, "No plans for this year to paint the Racer. When the time comes to repaint the ride, the original colors would be great. But it doesn't stay looking like that for long which was the primary reason the track was painted black in 1991."


Another fan asked what all can we expect from Coney Mall besides WindSeeker, new curbing and pavers. Don replied to the question with, "A fresh new look for the entire area. Buildings will be painted, some additional seating areas, addition of Dinosaurs Alive!"

Here is a time lapse from Youtube of the veritcal construction!


This is going to be a beautiful ride.

WindSeeker Update

By: Chris

Again all, sorry for the delay. There hasn't been too many off season updates. However, I'm excited to let you know that WindSeeker is well underway at Kings Island.

The construction crew at Kings Island has certainly been busy since our last WindSeeker update in December.

Coney Mall has been getting a ton of work as well. The WindSeeker Plaza is certainly shaping up at the end of Coney Mall.

Kings Island's Twitter has also been giving us wonderful updates. 

All pictures below are from Kings Island Twitter. 

Windseeker parts started to arrive at Kings Island on February 22nd.

It is quite amazing how big these pieces are! 

Don't forget you can check out the live webcam on the WindSeeker plaza at http://www.visitkingsisland.com/public/fun/webcams/index.cfm

Here's a video of the first piece at KI.

 Here's another video of pieces arriving at the park!

Finally here are three time lapses of the Windseeker Plaza construction!! 

 

 

I don't know about you, but I'm am really excited about this ride! Hope you enjoy this update on WindSeeker. Be looking for more updates as this ride goes vertical! Also be looking for a Trip Report on Kings Island's "sister park" Carowinds and possible a trip report on KI's true sister park, Kings Dominion after the first weekend in April! 

Don't forget to leave us comments! If you don't know how, check the "Contact Us Page" for instructions! We look forward to hearing from you and any ideas you may have!

Park Dreams

By: Chris

First of all I want to apologize for the lack of updates. Life can be crazy at times and add college in there you get a lack of time to even think!

With my past few times of going South 71 past Kings Island I've had some day dreams of the park, going and riding Diamondback, eating some Larosa's Pizza in the Festhaus, etc.

http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_Fd-zt93-dV4/SekpqaH7w9I/AAAAAAAABMM/r10WoIieGvo/s320/100_2128.JPG

The day dreams inspired me to look and see if some people had dreams about both Kings Island and Cedar Point. So I looked to the fan forums to do some research. Here are a few examples I found, enjoy! Nothing has been edited, minus taking poster names out.

•  I dreamt that I was in the Eiffel Tower and every thing was normal so I leaned against the bars to get a better look at DB but and then they dissapeared and I was falling (in slow motion). all i could think about was hitting the ground so I did what spider man would do and shot webs out of my finger tips and crawled back up the tower when i was safly in side the tower i looked around and everyone didnt even noticed what just happened. I turn around to look at where the bars had disappered and they were there again. I was so confused to say the least! This is what happin when you take Nyquil before bed!!!lol "
• I had a dream that a TTD train completly fell off the top of the tower. I was in the park as it happened, and i saw everyone running for cover. Then, and this was the weird part, they got a giant crane and started to take ttd down as everyone was still in the park! So, I then went on the tallest and fastest rollercoaster in the park, millennium force. Yeah... weird dream indeed!
I dreamt that I was being taken on a pre-dawn tour of the park by someone who was either Don Helbig or Jeff Probst, (or an amalgamation of them both), and there was an elevator inside the mast on the top of the Eiffel Tower, which, in true, dreamy illogic was over 3,000 feet tall! ...and I still couldn't see my house (dang it!) ...so, As I came out the top, there was a beautiful, curvy roller coaster with otherworldy supports (like something out of "Alien") silhouetted against the predawn twilight, rising a thousand feet out of the mist-enveloped treetops below. The supports featured an almost dragon-scale texture, and was lighted with slowly sweeping, ghostly-white, "Pink-Floyd-ish" robotic lights, which revealed a chrome-plated quality as the material sparkled. I reached for my trusty Flip camera (you know, because you gotta record your dreams...) Anyways... I felt a heat source so I turned around, and finally found the blinking aircraft beacon, and was amazed at how tiny it was. Suddenly, the wind picked up, and the mast started to sway violently, and the elevator, for some strange reason, had been removed for maintenance while we were up there; but the tour guide knew of a secret escape chute inside one of the leg supports of the tower, so we all jumped in and the gut-wrenching sensation of falling woke me up.
• Well, my brain went into overdrive last night, apparenty what I ate for dinner made me have weird dreams again.I dreamed that who ever truely owned Millenium Force had died, and that Cedar Point could no longer run the ride as it was designed. Cedar Point had to redesign a few sections of the ride so they could run it again.The major thing that changed was the 1st over bank turn. They kept it low to the ground, and twisted the track so when you went around the curve you were on the outside of the track, about 3 feet off the ground. They changed the cars to Single Cars so all seats were the front row, and made them larger so people up to 300 lbs could ride the ride. Then up in the front of the park they had announced the new ride for 2011. It was called the Demon, or Demons Return. The structure was an identical version of Demon Drop, but the cars were those robotic arms/simulator cars. And it was a space shuttle simulator ride of sorts. So just as I was about to try the new ride, my alarm went off and woke me up. - All I know is I better watch what I eat before going to bed, or I better get to Cedar Point this year real soon.
• I had this wild dream that I was on Magnum with my friend, and we were at the top of the lift hill, and the ride stopped. My friend got so scared that she unbuckles our seat belt, somehow pulls up our lap bar, and gets out of the train, making her way down the lift hill stairs. Just my luck, the train starts moving again, with my seat belt undone and lap bar up, quickly latch the seat belt, pulled the lap bar down, and prayed my friend would be okay going to the stairs. Well, as we were cresting the hill, my friend's shirt gets caught on the side of the train, and as the train goes down the hill, she is pulled down with it, and falls to the ground. When I got off the ride, I ran into Soak City to try and where she had landed. And oddly enough, she had survived the 205 foot fall, and wasn't even harmed! In fact, she was sitting on a bench eating cotton candy like nothing had happened!

Wow some of these are quite the trip! Have you ever had a dream about Kings Island or Cedar Point? Leave us a comment telling us what happened in your dream!

http://www.cedarpoint.com/_upload/groups/aerial08.jpg

Sources:
Point Buzz Dreams
KICentral Dreams

Don't forget to leave us comments! If you don't know how, check the "Contact Us Page" for instructions! We look forward to hearing from you and any ideas you may have!

It's a bird, It's a Plane, No it's a Roller coaster

By: Chris

           When you talk to guests and coaster enthusiasts about Cedar Point and ask them about the coasters that have dominated the park, they'll more than likely talk about Millennium Force, Maverick, Mantis, Raptor, Disaster Transport, Corkscrew, Top Thrill Dragster, Wicked Twister, Mean Streak, Blue Streak, Cedar Creek Mine Ride, Gemini, Iron Dragon, Gemini Jr., Magnum, Wildcat, or Woodstock Express. When you ask them about past rides they will mention things like Demon Drop, White Water Landing, Mill Race, 
Shoot the Rapids (Prior to 2010), Earthquake, Pirate Ride, The Double Ferris Wheel, Rotor, and Frontier Lift. But most people will not mention the now defunct roller coaster, Jumbo Jet.

http://thelostcoaster.files.wordpress.com/2010/06/mp_script_jumbojet.jpg?w=450&h=99

http://cache.rcdb.com/lo23q0nn0v9q0b300014u6.jpg

          Jumbo Jet was a pre-fab coaster that was listed as a coaster in the line up of rides at Cedar Point from 1972 until 1978. Jumbo Jet was one of the first coasters in the world to use a lift system that was an electrical one that was going up in a spiral. The trains would make their way up the very low grade spiraling helix before getting to the first drop. The helix had small wheel motors all the way up the incline that helped propel the train. The trains would have 2 cars, in which riders were in 6 rows per train, allowing for 12 riders per train. Jumbo Jet was classified as a steel coaster until later when it was distinguished as it's own type of coaster due to the size of the pipes. The coaster featured 70 degree banked turns and reached speeds up to 60 miles per hour. The track was 2,845 feet long, however the coaster itself was 108 feet long, 194 feet wide and 56 feet high. The coaster was located in the same beach front location where another defunct coaster, Cyclone, once stood and where Disaster Transport is now located. In 1979 Jumbo Jet was replaced by Wild Cat was moved from a previous location to the location of Jumbo Jet and then moved to its current spot. 

http://thelostcoaster.files.wordpress.com/2010/08/wagen-eigenantrieb01.jpg?w=300&h=447

http://thelostcoaster.files.wordpress.com/2010/08/jumbojetendoftheline.jpg?w=450&h=338

          This coaster was brought to my attention by stumbling upon a blog entitled The Lost Coaster. I had no idea about this coaster even being a coaster until I saw The Lost Coaster. To my knowledge their site is one that is trying to locate Cedar Point's pre-fab coaster since it had the ability to be moved and it wasn't destroyed after leaving Cedar Point. I don't have much to say about this coaster since there isn't a whole lot of information out there about it. As you can guess, I'd love to ride this coaster as well. I had found out that there were several duplicates of this coaster made and many of the "Jumbo Jets" are still in operation...now if I could find one! Check out the video below, it is about Cedar Point in 1972 and has a feature of Jumbo Jet. 

 Sources: 
http://rollercoasterfreak.com/Cedar_Point/History.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jumbo_Jet_(Cedar_Point)
http://www.rcdb.com/355.htm
http://thelostcoaster.wordpress.com/

Don't forget to leave us comments! If you don't know how, check the "Contact Us Page" for instructions! We look forward to hearing from you and any ideas you may have!